Telephone subscribers are normally limited in the ability to receive telecommunication messages by the access number assigned to a particular telecommunication device. If the subscriber is not within the vicinity of such a device he/she is unable to personally respond to an incoming call.
Services are presently provided to enable a subscriber to receive calls independently of a fixed telephone reception number. In some of these services the subscriber alerts a database of his present reception number and callers wishing to reach the subscriber may access that reception number by calling a translation number (e.g. such as an 800,900 number) assigned to that particular subscriber. Such an arrangement is not automatic however in that it fails if the subscriber fails to access and provide the data base with the current number at which he/she may be reached.
A subscriber may choose to utilize wireless telephone equipment such as a cellular radiotelephone to assure that calls will follow subscriber via the cellular or a wireless radiotelephone terminal. However the use of wireless radiotelephone service tends to be considerably more expensive than wired telephone service.